#670: LUBITSCH, Ernst: To Be Or Not To Be (1942)

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LUBITSCH, Ernst (United States)
To Be Or Not To Be [1942]
Spine #670
Blu-ray


As nervy as is it hilarious, this screwball masterpiece from Ernst Lubitsch stars Jack Benny and, in her final screen appearance, Carole Lombard as husband-and-wife thespians in Nazi-occupied Warsaw who become caught up in a dangerous spy plot. To Be or Not to Be is a Hollywood film of the boldest black humor, which went into production right before the U.S. entered World War II. Lubitsch manages to brilliantly balance political satire, romance, slapstick, and wartime suspense in a comic high-wire act that has never been equaled.

99 minutes
Black & White
Monaural
1:37:1 aspect ratio
Criterion Release 2013
Director/Writers


Original story by Melchior Lengyel.

Film Rating (0-60):

60

The Extras

The Booklet

Twenty-eight page booklet featuring an essay by critic Geoffrey O’Brien and a 1942 New York Times op-ed by Lubitsch.

Commentary

Featuring film historian David Kalat.

Pinkus’s Shoe Palace

A 1916 German silent short directed by and starring Lubitsch with a new piano score by Donald Sosin.

Two episodes

Of The Screen Guild Theater, a radio anthology series: Variety (1940) starring Benny, Claudette Colbert, and Lubitsch, and To Be or Not to Be (1942), an adaptation of the film, starring William Powell, Diana Lewis, and Sig Ruman.

Extras Rating (0-40):

39

60 + 39 =

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